Android Paid Apps Coming In Early Q1, 2009

The lack of a payment system in Android's marketplace has kept at least one major player from participating in Google's whimsical mobile phone adventure, but the company says paid apps are coming soon, soon, soon.

The rollout will take place in stages, landing in the US and UK first (in early Q1 of next year) and branching out into much of Europe in a second and third wave of deployments. Apps will also carry region controls, allowing developers to target them for specific countries, which could be useful for avoiding licensing issues that could come about with music download services and the like. Developers will be able to apply for inclusion in the Android App Marketplace website, which will provide app information to people who don't want to do their browsing on a tiny LED screen.

The reason for the tier development appears to be that Google, unlike Apple, which had a preexisting billing system in place for iTunes, doesn't yet have the payment infrastructure in place for each country. In any case, the addition of paid apps will hopefully spur development of some exciting apps after the relatively anemic first few months. [ModMyGphone—Thanks, Neerhaj]